The hallways were empty like earlier, the wood floor set aglow by the candles overhead. In confusion, he realized the ticking sound continued, but his shoulders dropped back to normal, unimpressed. 

It was probably a broken clock from no longer being cared for. In a way, it was fitting that it stopped working when its mechanics were gone.

With a huff, sweat dripped from his brow. Phew, why was it so hot? He suddenly missed sitting under the open window with the fresh air. With a roll of his shoulders, he shrugged off Xu Yang’s fur coat and his own, leaving them folded on a table nearby. His body already felt much lighter and more at ease. 

The magic weather system, founded by the mages, should’ve automatically adjusted the temperature levels within a controlled environment, meaning this situation was impossible. It should never get too hot or too cold, yet at this moment, Zhen Xue knew for certain, from his time enduring hot summers in the modern world, that it was at least eighty degrees Fahrenheit. 

His footsteps slowed down considerably, taking in the wax pooling on the ground from the unattended candles. The ticking sound, although fainter, continued in the distance, almost like... beneath the floorboards.

While his mind wrapped around these two strange events, the mourning bell tolled from outside, meaning the memorial had begun.

Everything stilled as the realization hit him like a truck.

The bodies were full of explosives. 

When the hot wax reaches the bottom floor, the palace will go up in flames. 

No, no, no... Panic engulfed his senses, vomit nearly rising from his throat as he realized it was too late to stop what will happen. He’d have to move six hundred bodies out of the palace to stop them from... from... 

He pushed open the nearest window, looking six floors below at the crowd present for the memorial. Across the lawn, he can make out the cages of six hundred mourning doves the royals will release to honor those that passed away. 

Even if he shouted from this high, nobody will hear him.

Wait... A thought suddenly occurred to him, one that caused his panic to deflate like a balloon. He’d been so stupid, caught up in the moment of what could happen, instead of focusing on the circumstances at hand.

All the servants were dead, and the memorial event had safely positioned his family across the lawn. There was nobody inside the palace. 

He laughed like an insane person, running a hand through his hair as relief or madness washed over him upon this realization. Nobody would get hurt but him alone.

Yeah, he decided, slumping to the floor with another bitter. Maybe that was for the best. The night Tianshi and Zhi died, he should’ve died too. Why did he get to live all this time instead of them? Nobody had an answer to this question, not even Zhen Xue. It sort of felt fitting that a fire would kill him. Thus, having decided, he didn’t move, not until he heard a familiar voice from the woman who sang earlier.

“Will you bring me a cup of wine, down from the Northern Mountain?” she sang again. 

Zhen Xue got up with suspicion, following the sound of her voice. 

“Oh, my dear, my sweet dear, don’t fear the unknown,” she continued as he quickens his steps, honing onto her location. “No matter the years, I’ll wait for you here, so please don’t let me go! Won’t you bring a cup of wine when you reach the Northern Mountain? Oh, oh, oh...!”

He found her piecing together the broken vase in the same spot she sat earlier. 

Why didn’t he find it odd she was still around compared to everyone else? He scolded himself, but pushed the thought aside. Instead of asking how she screwed with the magic weather system to make the wax melt faster, he asked what he really wanted to know. “If we’re both going to die here, can you at least tell me what song you’re plaguing my ears with?”

Beneath her messy bangs, she looked up. Her dark gaze didn’t quite reach him. Ah, he realized. She was blind. He watched her sit forward, hands frozen over the vase’s broken fragments. She smiled softly, hands rearranging the pieces again, like trying to sort them into a different puzzle. “A song that ends in tragedy, but brings hope to the lost souls roaming this world. The story goes that within every lifetime, two soulmates will meet, but one will eventually lose the other.” 

The thought made his heart pang with discomfort. Nothing in the novel described such a tale. Who could these two souls be? More over, her words made little sense. Zhen Xue sighed, not finding an answer. “How is that supposed to bring people hope?”

She smiled again, twisting the two broken shards together, as though that alone was enough of an explanation. “It means there’s a fixed point in time that doesn’t change, like these broken shards that fit back together but will never completely become whole. Do you know why that’s so fascinating? It confirms that the Strings of Fate exist. Somewhere within the gates of heaven, the god of time sits admiring his woven palace. Thus, if someone were to climb high enough, fate can be broken.”

“Are you listening to yourself?” Zhen Xue scoffed, nearly at the end of his patience. Strings of Fate? What nonsense. It wasn’t fate that killed the six hundred servants. They died a pointless death. Nothing was going according to the novel, but perhaps that was exactly what she meant. This conversation suddenly felt very important. “Let’s say fate has already changed. Doesn’t that mean we are heading towards a future no longer predetermined?”

She leaned her head back, as though seeing the roof overhead, or perhaps the sky, which somehow held all the answers in the world. “Good answer, but someone up there is already intervening as we speak. That’s why I’m planning to abolish the Strings of Fate for good, starting with your help, Zhen Xue,” she said, releasing a breathy grin.

“My help?” Zhen Xue huffed a bitter laugh in surprise. “Your plan might’ve worked if you had chosen anyone else, but I don’t have such lofty goals like saving the world.”

“Sure,” she said, like she couldn’t care less. “But I know you won’t let others die for you, not after losing so much already.”